Award Management
Once a student has been packaged for an academic year using valid data, Student Financial Planning begins the Awarding Process to determine if the student's funds are ready to be Awarded.
Overview
Once the configured criteria are met, award amounts are created and an outbound message is sent to the external client Student Information System (SIS) to communicate all the funds awarded to the student for that academic year. If updates are made to awarded amounts, Student Financial Planning creates and sends another outbound message to communicate the updates.
The system identifies which funds require Active Confirmation/Fund Acceptance, sends the outbound fund acceptance message, receives the inbound fund acceptance message and triggers the disbursement updates (if necessary) based the accepted amounts.
Status Definitions
Fund Status
The Fund status is found in the Fund Information Table on the Packaging Screen.
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Projected |
Required input data is not Actual For inputs to be Actual the following is required:
|
| Estimated |
Required input data is Actual
Award criteria batch job has run and fund type has Not Met all configured award criteria
For Non-Federal Funds (NFF) the status should be manually set during the awarding process |
| Awarded |
Award Criteria batch job has run and fund type has Met all configured award criteria or the fund type does not have to satisfy any award criteria For NFF Funds the status should be manually set during the awarding process For Other Resource Funds, Student Financial Planning sets the status to Awarded |
Packaging Statuses
The packaging status is found on the Packaging screen under the Packaging Summary
| Status | Description |
| Estimated | All funds in the Academic Year are Estimated or Projected |
| Partially Awarded | At least one fund in the Academic Year is Awarded and at least one other fund in the Academic Year is not Awarded |
| Awarded | All fund statuses in the Academic Year are Awarded |
| Pending Repackage | If the package has been or needs to be manually repackaged |
Fund Acceptance Statuses
| Status | Description |
| Pending Acceptance | Fund has met configured award criteria but requires fund acceptance |
| Accepted | Fund has been accepted |
| Fund Not Accepted | Fund not accepted by the student |
| Fund Not Accepted by Due Date | Fund acceptance not received by configured due date for fund type |
Awarding: What Student Financial Planning Does Automatically
Student Financial Planning automatically does the following things:
Triggers the awarding process
The Awarding Process begins when the student is packaged and the fund status is updated to Estimated or when the Payment Period (PP) Maximum Disbursement Amount increases for a PP and the fund status is updated to Awarded.
Once the awarding process begins Student Financial Planning determines whether the configured Awarding Criteria is met.
Generates award amounts
Student Financial Planning calculates award amounts for both the academic year and payment period levels based on the payment period maximum disbursement amount. If the Fund Limited by Previous Acceptance indicator is set to True for the payment period, Student Financial Planning calculates the award amount for the payment period according to the award amount on file at the time the indicator was set.
Sets the awarded indicator
Once the configured Awarding Criteria has been met, the awarded indicator for the payment period is set and Student Financial Planning begins subsequent processes and actions.
Sends the award outbound message
Student Financial Planning sends an Award Outbound Message to communicate to the student they can view their award. The Outbound Message contains information on all awarded funds within a student's package for a specific academic year. The award amount at the academic year and payment period levels for the fund, the fund acceptance status, indicator, and due date for all applicable funds are included in the message.
Student Financial Planning triggers the Award Outbound Message anytime:
- The Payment Period Max Disbursement Amount value has been updated for an Awarded payment period. The fund must pass all Awarding Criteria to be increased and before the Outbound Message is sent.
- The Fund Limited by Previous Acceptance Indicator has been set for a payment period.
- The Fund Acceptance has been received for a fund.
- The Fund Acceptance deadline has been extended by a user via At-Will
Sets the awarding version
Student Financial Planning sets the awarding version after the award outbound message is initially sent to the student, and subsequently thereafter for each time, a new message is triggered, to communicate changes in the student's awarded funds from one period of time to another.
When the student's award message is triggered for the first time, the awarding version number is set to 1. Each time the message is triggered for a specific academic year the awarding version number increase by one whole number. Awarding version numbers are calculated and grouped per academic year. The calculated awarding version number is included in each award outbound message.
The date the Award Outbound Message is sent and all the award message information is saved per Awarding Version.
Receives award information web service request
Student Financial Planning accepts the award information web service request and sends the award outbound message and includes all award information for that academic year, upon receiving the External Student ID, the academic year and the award version within the web-service request. The fund acceptance information with the highest version number associated with the award version number requested is included.
Fund Acceptance: What Student Financial Planning Does Automatically
Student Financial Planning automatically does the following things:
Calculates the fund acceptance due date
Student Financial Planning calculates the Fund Acceptance due date so that Student Financial Planning knows the date in which Fund Acceptance is required to be received.
Student Financial Planning triggers the Fund Acceptance due date calculator to determine/calculate the Fund Acceptance due date when the system has indicated that Fund Acceptance is required for the fund. Student Financial Planning defaults to the latest due date generated per academic year award.
Runs the fund acceptance due date batch job
Student Financial Planning runs a daily batch job to identify all funds that require Fund Acceptance but have not received acceptance by the calculated due date so that the Fund Acceptance statuses can be updated.
If a fund is not accepted by the configured Fund Acceptance Due Date, Student Financial Planning cancels the disbursement(s). If the award amount for the fund increases subsequently, Student Financial Planning considers the previously accepted amount before increasing the award amount.
Receives the fund acceptance inbound message
Student Financial Planning receives the Fund Acceptance inbound message for all funds packaged in Student Financial Planning (except Student Resource funds), even for those that do not require Fund Acceptance/Active Confirmation. Upon the receipt of the Inbound Fund Acceptance message, Student Financial Planning determines all payment periods in which the Fund Acceptance message applies based on the award year close-out for the fund type and sets the accepted amount. The accepted amount received within the Fund Acceptance message is the value Student Financial Planning awards and updates the disbursement amount if necessary.
Student Financial Planning records all Fund Acceptance message information received from the external client system per academic year.
Configurable Attributes
Configure Awarding Criteria
The institution can configure the awarding criteria per fund, per effective start date and Student Financial Planning will not award the student until the configured conditions are met.
The following attributes can be configured per effective start date for all Title IV Funds:
- Enrollment statuses
- Academic statuses
- Admission statuses
- The # of days before the Borrower-Based Academic Year (BBAY) start date
- The # of days from the first-course start date and the course status does not have a Projected state
For Non-Federal Funds specific conditional logic to determine the award criteria can be configured per effective start date per non-federal fund code.
If the institution does not configure a value for any of the parameters, the system will not check for that specific criterion to be met.
Configure fund acceptance requirements
The institution can configure whether Fund Acceptance is required for each individual fund type and actively confirm the amount the student is accepting. In addition, the institution can configure a due date (if applicable). The school can set the number of days the student has to accept the award from the date the outbound award message is sent to the student to communicate Fund Acceptance is required.
Required Role Permissions
The user must have a role with the following General Permission(s) through Roles Management in order to view the following information.
- Student
- Fund Eligibility Viewer
See Set General Permissions Matrix for additional information.